Now the Fandroids are not going to like this, and are advised to look away lest they suffer an apoplectic fit and shower their keyboards in even more drool than usual.
US market watcher Maritz Research asked 2500 North American smartphone owners which tablet they would like to get. Many said they'd like an iPad, Forbes reports …

They're not even much more expensive...

Armchair comparison: assume you're lazy and looking for a tablet at pcworld. The sony s is £349.99. An iPad 2, also 16gb is £399.99. That's 14% extra for better build quality, faster performance, longer battery life, better base of apps, likelihood of being supported for longer and a bigger screen thrown in as well (in 4:3 not too short 16:9). Unless you got a touchpad in the firesale like me you'd have to really, really want android or usb slots built in to go for anything else.

It's annoying-apple know they have a hit on their hands so they can bulk-order components, make it for less than the competition and still turn a healthy profit which they can then use to fund R&D to stay ahead. Unless they stumble I can't see what's going to beat them in the tablet market.

Not foaming at the mouth - Appley things are more polished.

I don't own a single Apple product, I've a Nexus One and eeePC Transformer*. However whenever I use an iPad (1 or 2), I find it's a much more polished product.

As a developer though, I'm in the 1% that takes issue with Apple's love of locking everything down, something the average consumer has no reason to concern themselves about. Currently none of the tablets tick every box for *me*, but when one finally does there's no doubt it'll be an Android one.

* I still take my ThinkPad (with SSD, GPS, 3g & Linux) around with me when I need to do real work though.

I've got an HTC Desire Android phone (which I love) a Windows PC and an ipad 1. Whilst I'm a fanboi of Android phone and Windows PC I'm still not sure what my next tablet will be (future Transformer with SD card might be sweet but I've learned to live within the 16GB limit of the ipad and cloud).

My music library lives on my phones SD card.

Even tho' I've invested in ipad software, trust the security of the ipad ecosystem (in point of fact I now only do online shopping and banking on my ipad), and prefer the non widescreen aspect and battery life, I really dislike the Apple way of doing business (which, in reality impacts me pretty much not at all). But, if the ipad 3 comes out with retina display and comparable battery life I'll probably just upgrade to a 32 GB version, unless the competition do three things:

Oooh, that's too much suppering!

Works THE OTHER WAY too...

Our household has two iPhones (three if you count the one that's not quite working properly), and two iPod Touches.

I'd been looking at the iPad, but the $520 starting price was a non-starter. Yes, I know that the iPhones cost a lot more in the long run, but smart phones are "essential", and the monthy bill is exactly the same for any smart phone.

Then I walked past the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook display when they just went on sale for $300, and it was an easy decision to grab one. I wanted the Flash Audio capability to listen to Mark Coles world music Shedcast without being tied to a laptop (Apple products are not compatible). Since then, now that the PlayBook has been on sale for $200, I've bought two more as Xmas gifts and everyone in the office has bought one or two (over a dozen at last count).

Even though our family are "Apple fans" (with respect to the smaller devices and the entire ecosystem), the $500+ iPad is still a non-starter. We're not THAT much of a fan. A high quality $200 tablet is an easy spur of the moment decision; the $500+ iPad certainly is not. Given that each has their own advantages (e.g. Flash, convenient size, build quality, etc.), it's six-of-one vs. a half-dozen of the other (but with a huge price disparity).

No surprise

A lot of frustration with the iPhone has come from using AT&T exclusively until recently. That has changed, of course, but contracts don't end overnight.

However, most of the Android phones are lower end phones. They were smartphones whose great feature was "lower price". If the Android tablets cost the same as an iPad, the Android tablet is missing the one feature (price) that induced a lot of people to buy the Android phones.

41% does not a majority make

I'm not a fandroid. I mean, I have an Android phone and an Android tablet and this is a pro Android rant but I'm not a fandroid... I swear... why just last week I proposed that if my mother-in-law wanted a tablet she should get an iPad for ease of use.

Anyway, back to the point. You say that Android phone users favour the iPad. Well, 41 % do I guess, but leading with that is kind of misleading. Do the other 59% still prefer Android tablets? I get that they are different manufacturers, but you started off talking about OS and then stated the percentages for the manufacturers...?

How to gain a majority

Here's a thought - if Apple want a true majority to ensure they can run the market, why don't they form a coalition with one of the smaller players who are willing to sacrifice all their principles and previous loyal customers just to piggy-back some market share?

Sound familiar for some reason...must be because it's a proven formula which has worked so well in the past...

Re:

I suspect many people en up with Android handsets as they are cheaper and more often given as free upgrades and when it comes to choosing between a 'smart' phone (that looks like an iPhone) or yet-another candy bar Nokia you will go with the smart phone with the large screen etc.

The problem is many Android users will just treat it as a phone and little else.

However, the situation is different with tablets are you are choosing it and paying for it with your own cash (rather than getting it free / subsidised as many phones are). When you 'choose' like that you want the iPad as simply - for most people - it's the best.

75% of the (pretty huge) 'tablet' market is iPad - they are not all fanboys and girls.

"Which is why ipeople tend to be a bit thick. Droid owners can see through the hype and don't want to be tarred by the same brush as the easily swayed ipeople."

Or maybe the opposite is true and iPeople want a device to 'work' (very) well as a tablet and do not want to spend their evenings fiddling, rooting it or installing ginger-ice-creamy-biscuit or custom ROMs to get it to 'work'.

"Since then, now that the PlayBook has been on sale for $200, I've bought two more as Xmas gifts and everyone in the office has bought one or two (over a dozen at last count)."

Get them while you can if that is what you want but it's like the HP tablet - they HAVE to drop the price to get people to buy but they are selling at a LOSS. So fast forward 6-12 months and they have binned it and all support for it and you have an expensive doorstop.

At least an iPad is likely to still be around / working / supported in a couple of years.

I Have Both

I use my iPhone 4 for business and my HTC EVO 4G for personal use. I've also got an iPad 1 and had a Vizio VTAB1008 8" tablet. The Vizio went back.

I prefer the Android interface. True multitasking and Widgets make the device a big part of my workflow. So much so that I SHOULD be using the Android phone for business and the iPhone 4 for games and media.

I use the iPad for eBooks, games, videos and remote access to work computers. Since I don't care for most games on Android, except for gaming, most any Android tablet would be a better choice for me than an iPad.

I see the iPad as a really big iPod (I gave my Touch to my wife for eBook reading) and the better Android tabs as being more like a computer. The Kindle Fire may run Android, but the configuration of it (Amazon eBook, Amazon Music, Amazon Movies) make it compete more with the iPad than against other Android tablets.

That said, unless the iPad 3 turns out to be some fantastic device, I'm seriously looking at the Asus Transformer Prime for my next tablet. I think that the second generation Android tablets are going to kick some iButt.

Marketing again

It's not the configuration of the Kindle Fire, it's that people know what it's for. If you go to Android Market you'll see sections for Games, Apps, Books and Movies. In the US there's a section for Music too. And they've recently released Catalogs (shopping) and Currents (for periodicals). The Google ecosystem doesn't come up short, it's just not pushed hard enough.

One could argue that some 2nd gen android tablets are already on sale, but even those still use the 1st gen OS version. Asus's 2nd gen has been out for 2 days and Samsung hasn't released on yet unless you count Galaxy Tab 10.1N, so it's too early to dismiss them.

"...an expensive doorstop..."

How did you arrive at that nonsensical proposition? A. It's not expensive. B. Even if RIM dried up and blew away tomorrow (less than likely), the PlayBook will still do its thing long past the point where the user has moved on to the latest gadget (roughly three years).

The PlayBook or similar bargains are the Internet behind a lovely capacitive touch screen. They typically play streaming audio, including Flash. I. Do. Not. Care. about the long term implications of QNX vice iOS in a device that will be effectively obsolete in three years.

Many consumers are suffering from cognitive disorders that are impacting their decision making skills. For example, the lunacy of thinking that a particular gadget du jour (e.g. iPod 2) as being "The Last Gadget I Will Ever Buy" ™.

The PlayBook will be an *inexpensive* doorstop in three years.

The iPad 2 will be a reassuringly-expensive doorstop in thirty-six months.

Android has a large share of the phone-OS market - a large enough share that their users would HAVE to prefer the iPad, otherwise they Apple couldn't have the market share that they do! (even assuming that iPhone users will never buy any tablet other than an iPad, which is probably pretty close to the truth).

Advertising and polish

Yes, the ipad is easier to use, the UI is fluid. Nice games, OK browser, very good battery life. Premium feel. It is the current The Tablet.

On the other side of the fence Android tablets are still first edition (the second-gen Asus Transformer Prime Ultra Mega Powered By Tegra III will be out soon, but it isn't out yet, and will come with Honeycomb, which is occasionally a bit rough around the edges). Tegra 2 is not as fast as the stuff in ipad 2. Combined with the semi-hardware accelerated Honeycomb, the resource burden of multitasking, the added complexity of having options (widgets etc), the math is simple. ipad is more appealing (apart from the walled garden obviously).

That said, I expect the lead to shrink and disappear in time. The new Asus device is no ipad2 beater, but it sure has a lot going for it (very good battery life, detachable keyboard/USB host/SD/extra battery thing, excellent performance). It IS a premium product, and if I were to buy a tablet I'd choose it over the ipad in a heartbeat. Sort of nice to be able to connect stuff through USB, for instance, making it more than a flashy toy/media consumption device and into a light work device.

But I'll wait. I don't need a tablet, being surrounded by computers. And will probably but a Vita in time, to play games with a real controller.

From the article -

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Apple's got slick ads, but word of mouth and hand-to-hand wow factor is more. People who have iPads tend to be mavens (fandroid's call em "sheep") so they rave about the product. So more people buy it and - guess what - the product actually lives up to the hype.

It's not the hardware specs, it's not just the advertising. It's giving people a coherent, usable and seamless user experience and then letting people sell your product for you.

The old tech is dead. Long live the new tech, where companies have to think of people instead of shitty lists of hardware specs.

Maven doesn't mean sheep

It means expert. The sheep are called sheep, not the experts. "Fandroids" (those are the people who sell google's products for them, 'eh?) needs no apostrophe, but "em" does. I'm ere to help.

Old and tech is not dead, and it won't be killed by having the lists of specs removed. What you're describing there is the death of the old advertising. It's true that advertising sells products better than technological virtuosity, a claim which you chose not to disprove, only deny.